Lovely Danger
by xErikax
Summary: Zoey has grown closer to Francis since he had found her alone and scared in her dorm. When she comes face to face with a non-deadly Hunter, who will she choose? Francis/Zoey/Hunter **DISCONTINUED**
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, this is my first EVER fanfic. Debating on whether or not I should continue. Leave your opinions and thoughts in the reviews :) (Constructive Criticism Is Welcome) **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. The geniuses at Valve do...for now...MWAHAHAHHA *cue the evil music and laughter*  
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><p>I sat alone in my dorm. The door was barricaded, and I had the pistol that my father had given me for protection in my hand, ready to shoot anything that tried to come through the door. I had already used two bullets on my roommate.<p>

She forgot to mention that she was bitten when we trapped ourselves in our room, hiding from the infected. We had decided to take shifts at night for us to be able to sleep.

I had woken from a noise and looked up to see that my roommate had turned into one of the things we were trying to stay away from.

I cried softly as I grabbed the gun from the bedside table and aimed it at her.

"I'm so sorry Kimmie," I said, and pulled the trigger. Blood splattered everywhere as the bullet pierced her in between her blank, soulless eyes.

I gagged as I pulled her lifeless body into a closet and shut the door.

A day passed and all the sounds of panicking in the streets were replaced with sick moans.

It was almost noon when I started hearing gunshots. I heard someone breaking down the front door downstairs and thundering up the stairs.

I held my breath as I crouched under the bed and aimed the gun at the door. There was a soft knock at the door and I suddenly felt useless.

"Hello?" I called, my voice cracking from lack of use.

"Let me in, unless you want to become zombie lunch," said a deep, man's voice. There was struggling against the door, and I slowly came from the safety of my bed.

"Do you promise not to hurt me?" I asked, wishing instantly that I could take it back. I heard what resembled a chuckle come from behind the door.

"Yeah, sure."

I sighed as I began to take chairs and tables away from the door, slowly waiting for something to jump out and attack me. I opened the door and finally saw who was talking to me.

He was instantly stereotyped in my mind as some kind of biker, but shaking those thoughts, I decided to give him a chance.

He pushed the door in enough for him to get through and shut it behind him. He was easily eight to nine inches taller than my 5' 7'' stature. He was wearing torn jeans and black boots. He was wearing a white tank top and he had a black leather vest over it. His arms were covered with tattoos and scars. Everything about him screamed danger.

"Are you going to stand there and gawk at me all day or are we going to move out?" he asked, smirking. And he obviously had quite the ego.

"C-can I get a few things before we leave?" I said, jumping up.

He sighed. "Pack light and hurry up."

I opened the closet to grab a bag and stupidly forgot about the zombie-body.

I screamed and jumped back. Apparently on instinct, the biker turned around and without thinking twice, shot the lifeless body.

My heart racing and ignoring the crazy looks from him, I slipped past the biker and grabbed an empty backpack from the shelf and began stuffing it. I threw in a couple of shirts, two hoodies, three pairs of pants and four pairs of underwear for good measure. I raced to the little bathroom and threw in a brush, toothbrush and paste, with a couple dozen ponytail holders. I got the cross that parents had gotten me for Christmas last year and put it around my neck.

Satisfied, I zipped up the backpack and put it on my back. I walked back into the bedroom and found the biker watching me as I put the gun holster on my hip.

"I'm Francis by the way," he told me as I struggled with the stupid belt.

"Zoey," I said, still messing with the buckle.

"Here," Francis said, shooing my hands away and clicked the ends together with ease. His hand caught the hem of my shirt as he was helping me and grazed across the skin of my stomach.

I gasped softly and stared at him. He looked up at me and stared into my eyes for a moment. It was an instant spark that was felt between us, but it was interrupted by the sound of more inanimate moans from outside.

I cleared my throat, looking at the ground. "Maybe we should get going."

"Yeah," Francis said, reloading his gun and checking it one last time.

Thoughtlessly, I grabbed a pink jacket and put it on. I put my hair up and nodded towards him, ready to go.

We slowly crept through the empty, silent building. The humming of the lights and air conditioner was the only thing heard as we went down the stairwell.

"Stay close to me, and don't be afraid to use that pistol of yours," Francis said in a hushed tone. I took it out of the holster and cocked it, silently thanking my father for taking me to the gun range all those times when I was younger.

Francis stayed ahead of me as we entered the first floor lobby. I almost fainted when I saw how many of them there were just milling around, as if they had lost everything.

That was when they caught wind of us and most of their heads jerked our way. Francis started shooting them like they were moving targets, and so did I.

They began running at us with their arms flailing and eyes crazy. I must have shot at least fifteen before I finally ran out of ammo. I panicked and forgot that I had another clip.

Francis who was back to back against me was killing them left and right. I spotted an extra shotgun strapped to his back and unhooked it from him and began shooting.

The numbers dwindled and finally, all that was left were corpses. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins as I turned to face Francis.

He smirked at my excited expression. "It gets old fast kid, so don't get too trigger-happy," he said, taking back his shotgun.

"Sorry," I grinned.

We reloaded with some ammo we found in a little corner and got ready for round two.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey you guys! I decided to do chapter two since I got a couple of hits. I know, its kinda short but bare with me. I'm still in the process of writing it all out. Believe me, there is a method to my madness. Well, enough with the rambling. Enjoy! XOXO-Erika 3  
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><p>That was almost two weeks ago. Since then, Francis and I had been looking for some kind of human life besides the obvious. We had stumbled across two alive, real, non-gut-puking humans, and they joined us. One was an old Vietnam veteran named Bill. He came across as a grumpy old man who liked to keep to himself unless needed. The other, Louis, was a bank-teller from San Francisco. He was okay attitude-wise and tried to see the best in everything.<p>

It had taken a lot of convincing on my part to get Francis to accept them into our little group. What had gotten him to agree was the old phrase "There's safety in numbers. And right now, we could use those."

He graciously complied, and we were all currently sitting in a safe house. Francis and I had learned the hard way that they couldn't get through steel doors and we were decently safe if we barricaded ourselves in.

"I swear those stupid Hunters are getting smarter and smarter," Bill said, wincing as I stitched his back together.

Hunters were one of what we had decided to call the special infected. They had a tenancy to leap off of the rooftops of buildings and attack you with their scary scissor like hands. You could always tell when one was around because they always gave off a really distinctive guttural growl before they attacked. I myself have yet to encounter them but I really don't want to jinx myself.

"Bill quit wiggling," I said, trying my damnedest to make the stitching straight as possible.

"We should probably wait here for a few days while he heals," Louis said, looking around the small room.

"Wait a damn minute-" Bill said, trying to stand up.

"Sit your stubbornass down," I said, shoving his shoulders down, forcing him to sit back down in the chair.

"For once I agree with Louis. You got to at least heal a little bit Old Man," Francis said, leaning against a wall and sipping on a hot beer he found in a small mini-fridge.

I finished up with Bill and smacked him lightly on his head. "We're done Mr. Grumpy."

"Watch it Pip-Squeak," he grumbled, fixing his barrette.

I laughed and sat over by Francis. I took some granola bars from my backpack and distributed them and then settled down with my own.

Francis slid down beside me and I leaned against his shoulder. He and I had grown kind of close since he had first found me. He had saved me countless times and I decided that if nothing else, I could at least be a good female companion to him. Not THAT way for you perverted people out there. But you know what I mean.

"Man these things are getting kind of old," Louis said after he finished his last bar.

"What I wouldn't give for a steak right now," Bill muttered.

"Or a Twinkie," I said.

Both Francis and Louis laughed, getting the joke. Bill just looked at me weirdly.

I lay down on the cold floor, too tired to do anything else. The guys started going over plans for when we were to head out and start traveling again as I fell into a deep sleep.

We headed out when we thought Bill was healed enough to make it to the next safehouse.

Francis was up in front, with me behind. Bill was right behind me with Louis following in the rear. There wasn't really any of the infected wandering around as they usually did. I shot a few that were hanging around the gas station next to the road. I felt something suddenly wrap around my waist and pull me backwards…fast.

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><p><strong>So please tell me what you think! I need something, whether or not you're kinda iffy with the whole concept or if you have questions! Feel free to PM me or leave your opinions in the reviews. :D Thanks Bunches-Erika<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING! The geniuses at Valve do. I just own my opinions and fantasies about it XP**

**This chapter is dedicated to my very first reviewer Britney-ney. Not only do I actually know you in real life and you're my best friend, but we also go to high school together! I love ya girl!**

**Please people, for the sake of this story and my sanity, please, PLEASE review. It may be what keeps this story alive :D  
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><p>"FRANCIS!" I screamed as I watched the people that I had grown to depend on get smaller in size the farther back that this monster pulled me.<p>

"Zoey!" I heard him yell and was followed by a steady stream of gunfire. One second I was in the air, getting the life squeezed out of me, the next I was on the ground, the whole right side of my body screaming in pain.

Francis got to me first and bent down. "Are you okay Zoe?"

"It hurts so much," I sobbed.

"I know, I know Zoey. Can you get up?" he asked.

I tried, honestly tried with all my might, but my leg ended up giving out and I fell again. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to cry.

I felt him pick me up and put me over his shoulder and start running.

"I see a safehouse!" I heard Bill yell, as we, well they, kept running.

Out of nowhere, I heard what must have been two-dozen zombies come out from a building and start running after us. In any other situation, I would have totally sat back, reloaded and killed every single one of them. But this was different.

I looked down on Francis' belt and saw that he still had a pipe bomb that he had grabbed earlier and activated it. I threw it around twenty-five yards away in the opposite direction of us and it seemed like they all stopped dead (ha...Dead…never mind) in their tracks and started attacking the little beeping bomb. I heard the beeping contraption gradually get faster and then watched it as it exploded and sent dead body parts flying in every which direction.

I sighed in relief as we made it closer to the saferoom without incident…until I felt a sharp pain on my arm and looked to see a zombie head, still biting down on my arm, it's wild eyes looking straight at me.

I shrieked and punched it off, sending it falling to the ground. There were punctures on my arm and I groaned, wondering how well this was going to work out.

We entered the saferoom and Bill and Louis went to barricading the door quickly. Francis gently put me down on a mattress that was shoved over in a corner and looked at me.

"Let's see how bad it is," he said, lifting the side of my shirt. I couldn't help but blush as he took my t-shirt completely off to assess the damage.

"It looks like you may have some severely bruised ribs and your leg got twisted, but you'll live," he said, getting a med kit to use on me.

"Francis," I said softly.

He turned around and looked at me questioningly.

I looked down at my arm. "I got bit."

I heard a gasp come from Louis. I looked up at Bill and he had a somber look about him. I finally looked at Francis' face and almost cried. He looked so sad it wasn't even funny.

"If I turn," I said slowly.

"No."

"If I turn, please, I don't want to become one of them," I said, tears welling in my eyes.

"Zoey, you have no idea what you're asking of me," Francis replied, looking me straight in my eyes.

"Please," I begged.

"I can't," he said, pain in his voice.

I mustered up the courage then and there and kissed him. He kissed me back passionately and ran his fingers through my loose hair.

I pulled back and looked at him. "Promise me," I managed.

He closed his eyes. "Okay."

I faintly smiled and put my forehead against his. We sat there like that for a while. Then I didn't feel so good. I was sweating like a pig and I was throwing my guts up in a bucket that Louis managed to find. I shivered, freezing, even though it was almost ninety degrees in the stuffy room.

Francis sat behind me, holding onto me as if I were going to jump up and leave at any moment. He held my hand and played with my hair while I sat there, slowly dying. I felt like someone was taking a knife and stabbing me in my stomach over and over again.

I looked up at Francis with pleading eyes.

His eyes widened. "Now?"

I faintly nodded and waited for death to come.

I heard Louis sniffling and Bill say, "It was great knowing you soldier."

"Zoey I love you," was the last thing I heard Francis say before the sound of a gunshot rang in my ears.

I sat up, gasping for air as I looked around wildly. Francis was lying down close to me and Bill was lying on his stomach on the other side of me. Louis was sitting with his back against the wall, asleep with gun in hand.

Francis sat up beside me. "You okay Zoe?"

I looked up at him, almost crying. "Yeah, I'm fine. Go back to sleep."

He took another look at me and then gathered me in his arms. "It wasn't real Zoey. I promise it's not going to happen to you."

I had nightmare before this one, and this wasn't the first time since I left my dorm with Francis either. One night I had actually unconsciously punched him in the face during my sleep. Sure it was a funny story in the morning, but tell that to a swollen jaw and a grumpy Francis…it wasn't a pretty picture. It was two reoccurring dreams and I always woke up crying.

Francis rocked me back and forth, shushing me as I silently cried. I ended up falling asleep in his arms, feeling somewhat safe.

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><p><strong>AHAHAHAHAHA! You people thought it was legit, did u not? well, mwahahhaa. I feel kind of evil right now. Review and tell me your thoughts! -Erika :D<br>**


	4. Chapter 4

**HAHAHA! I love my friend Britney's reaction to the previous chapter. I had already updated it and we were talking on Facebook when I told her to go read the newest chapter. Her reaction was priceless. I love you Britney! I hope everyone enjoys the newest chapter and thanks for the reviews! Keep 'em coming :D -Erika  
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><p>The sound of low mumbling woke me the next morning. I lifted my head and saw that Louis was changing the dresses on Bill's back. I looked over beside me and Francis was still sleeping like a baby, his arms still wrapped around me.<p>

I tried getting up to let him sleep a little longer, but he constricted his arms around me closer to him. He squeezed pretty hard and I let out a puff of breath.

"Jesus Francis," I grumbled.

Bill chuckled from across the room, and I stuck my tongue out at him. I finally came to the conclusion that I was going to have to wake the bear in order to gain back some kind of mobility.

I shook his arm gently. "Francis, come on. Time to wake up."

He groaned and pulled me tighter.

"Get off ya big oaf!" I said, non-successfully shoving him off of me.

"Wha? Oh, sorry Zoey," he said, letting go of his death grip on me.

"Thank you," I huffed.

Louis laughed at us. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say-"

"If you knew any better," Francis interrupted him. "You'd keep that thought to yourself."

I giggled, knowing where this was going. "Shut up Louis. Is the water still working in this small bathroom?"

"Yeah," Bill replied, lighting a cigarette.

"Cool," I said, gathering a change of clothes from my backpack and heading in for a shower. There wasn't much soap, and I figured that I would use what I needed and save the rest for the guys if they wanted a shower. I almost forgot what it was like to be clean. It had been over a week since I had last taken a shower and even that was a fast and rushed one at an old motel that Francis and I had stopped at before we joined up with Bill and Louis.

After I got out, I slid into my cleanest pair of pants, and a purple tank top. I hand-washed the dirty clothes as best I could and hung them on the curtain rod. I walked outside and sat down in a metal chair over in the corner as I brushed my hair.

While Francis took a shower, Louis and I took note of our dwindling food supply. "We're going to have to get out and find a grocery store or something."

Since someone with medical knowledge needed to stay with Bill, it was decided that I would go with Francis to the nearest store and try to get some canned goods or something.

As I was emptying my backpack so we could put the extra food in it, Francis came out of the bathroom, shirtless. He's not exactly a bad looking guy, and the fact that he was absolutely ripped didn't do him anything bad either.

"See something you like Zoey?" he asked, breaking my ogling trance.

I blushed and looked back at what I was doing.

"You and Zoey are going out and getting some extra food," Louis told him.

"There should be some kind of grocery store around here since we're sort of in town. As soon as I heal up, we'll be out of here in no time," Bill said, putting out a cigarette on the concrete floor.

I took Francis' white tank top from his hands and washed it and laid it across the sink to dry.

"What am I supposed to wear?" he asked as I came back in the room.

I picked up his leather vest and threw it at him. "There ya go cowboy. Hurry up and lets go," I said smirking.

"I am NOT a cowboy," he muttered and took hold of his guns.

I gathered up my pistols, grabbed Francis' shotgun, and strapped it to my back.

"Why do you think you're taking my gun?" he asked me, playfully pulling on my ponytail.

I punched him in the arm in return. "Because I'm special," I said, snipering off a few zombies through a window in the door.

"That's for sure," he replied, opening the door slowly.

I kicked his butt with my boot as I followed him. I heard chuckling behind me and I raspberried them.

We got serious as we left sight range of the safehouse. There was a little gas station across the road behind several zombies. We were in the safety of an alley and Francis took them out one by one with his AK-47 while I scanned the rooftops. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow fly by really fast. I swerved around and was back to back with Francis.

A few zombies came out of windows of abandoned buildings and were shot immediately. I grew nervous as I kept seeing the shadow go back and forth.

Finally, I heard that Francis had stopped shooting and he waited for me to relax. But I couldn't. Something was watching us.

"You alright Zoey?"

"Yeah. Let's get this food and be done with it. This place gives me the creeps."

We started towards the store and then a little part of my nightmare from the night before came true.

A slimy and foul-smelling tongue snaked around my waist and I was carried through the air. "Zoey!" I heard Francis yell, and just like my dream, a round of gunfire came with it. But it wasn't enough. I was pulled to a rooftop and over the ledge. The tongue disappeared and I spun around to face one of the smells I hated the most: smoke. The creature was peering at me with hateful eyes and then it launched after me. It was at least fifteen feet away from me so I still had time to get my gun and possibly shoot it.

I reached for my gun and realized I had dropped it when the Smoker's tongue had a hold of me.

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><p><strong>Tell me what you think in the reviews! The more the better! And I know that I'm so evil and whatnot for this Cliffy. Heh. Love ya! -Erika<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey you guys! I am so glad that I have so many hits on this story! But on another hand, it would be helpful to get some actual feedback. So leave your thoughts on some reviews! Thanks so much to everyone who has read my story and given me hope to continue this story!  
>Enjoy Reading! -Erika<strong>

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><p>I reached back for the shotgun and remembered that I had used it and it was on the ground where Francis and I were fighting the other zombies in the alley.<p>

It came awful close to me and I did what my instincts told me and roundhouse kicked the hell out of it. The Smoker stumbled backward and shook its head, as if trying to get the stars to go away. It came after me again and I didn't get a chance to do anything because all you could hear was a Hunter's screech in the air.

I gasped and started backing up. The Smoker was looking around warily, and in an instant was pinned to the ground, being slashed to death by the Hunter's lethal claws. Not believing my eyes, I involuntarily screamed.

The Hunter instantly stopped and whirled around to look at me. My eyes grew wide and I clapped my hands over my mouth, wishing that I could take it back.

It slowly got off of the Smoker, making it's way over to me. I backed up until I met the concrete wall of the ledge with my back. I sunk to the ground as the Hunter came nearer and nearer. I couldn't take looking at him anymore, so I put my hands in my face, waiting for a different kind of death to come.

Seconds passed and I became impatient for death. I looked up and found the Hunter in its infamous crouch, almost staring at me. I couldn't tell if it was looking at me specifically because it had a hood on and I couldn't see its eyes.

I stood up, angry now. As soon as I did, I almost regretted it because the Hunter stood up too.

"Aren't you going to kill me already?" I almost screamed at it.

It cocked its head at me, almost like it was considering the idea.

"Who am I kidding? You probably can't even understand me," I said, mainly to myself.

Then I heard what almost sounded like a snort come from the Hunter. I narrowed my eyes at it, feeling brave all the sudden.

There was a loud, distinguishable cough behind the Hunter and I took my eyes off of it for one second, praying that I wouldn't regret my action.

The Smoker was slowly sitting up. How, I don't know because his guts were hanging almost out of his body and lying on the ground beside him.

The Hunter growled and got my full attention again. It nodded towards the ground and lifted a claw and pointed downward. It was almost like he was telling me to stay down. I sat back down against the ledge and gathered my knees by my head, looking up at the Hunter.

He nodded curtly and turned back to the Smoker. He screeched and pounced back onto the now standing Smoker and clawed the undead life out of him.

There was green smoke everywhere when the Smoker was finally dead. It smelled horrible and I started coughing as well, covering up my nose and mouth with my arm.

The Hunter reappeared in front of me, not seemingly affected by the horrid odor. He jerked his head towards the other rooftops. I felt my eyes grow wide.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I said to myself.

It seemed like I heard almost a sigh from the creature. He pointed a claw at me, then at his back, then towards the other rooftops. Well, at least he seemed like he knew what he was talking about.

"You want me to go with you?"

He nodded.

I almost laughed. Almost. "No. I have to get back to my friends. I can't possibly-"

I was cut off by a low growl from him. I felt myself get angry again.

"Don't growl at me Mister! I have to get back to my friends before they worry about me too much."

He cocked his head at me, almost like he was challenging me. I stood up and walked straight up to him. God, I'm an idiot. "Listen here Mr. I'm-A-Hunter-So-I'm-Scary. I HAVE to get back to my friends. They need me. I need them. Take me to them and I promise you'll get away safely."

And he did it. The head-cocking thing, again. That was really starting to irritate me.

I sighed. Clearly this was getting me nowhere, and fast. "Turn around."

Surprisingly, the Hunter did what I asked. Too bad I didn't choose to run at that time. But something tells me that he would have caught me. Just saying.

I jumped on his back, apparently surprising him because he almost jumped out of his skin when I did.

"I'm only doing this because I know for a fact you can hurt me within a second if you really wanted to. But you have to promise me something," I said, situating myself onto his back. I wrapped my legs around his waist in true piggy-back fashion and held onto his shoulders for dear life.

He twisted his head so he could see at least the side of my face from the shadows of his hood.

"I want to at least see my friends again before you kill me."

He did the snort thing again and without warning, the jerk, he leapt into the air and bounded on top of another rooftop. He didn't even hesitate to jump a second time. I squeezed my legs around him more, praying that he would catch me if I fell. Mainly because I didn't have a med kit handy, and I doubt that he would survive going and trying to get help from the rest of my team.

He didn't seem bothered by it. I peeked out from behind his shoulder and watched the world pass by us as we fluttered from rooftop to rooftop.

Finally, the Hunter made a final bounding leap to a three-story building. Once I realized that he didn't plan on jumping again, I got off of his back. Everything was so weird feeling. I had gotten used to almost flying and now all the sudden I had un-motion sickness. I sat on the tarred roof and put my hands over my face, closing my eyes tightly.

After a few seconds, I felt the Hunter pick me up bridal-style and carry me into the building and down the steps to what looked like a pretty good-sized loft. I noticed a queen sized bed over in a corner and a stove with an icebox beside it.

The Hunter set me down gently and I immediately ran over to the fridge and check it. There was virtually nothing except empty old Chinese takeout cups lying on the side on the shelf and I sighed.

I turned around and gasped. I wasn't expecting the Hunter to be so close to me. I never realized how truly tall he was until I had to almost touch my head to my back to look at him. He was standing up completely straight and was looking down at me.

Just then, my stomach growled very loudly and I moaned. The Hunter did his stupid, annoying little head-cock and then lifted a finger on his claw, as if he was saying to wait a moment.

I sighed and nodded. I watched him as he crouched into a defensive position and sprung out of a nearby open window.

I sat down on a couch in what seemed like the living room area and sighed, wishing I knew what was going on with my friends. I really know I missed them because I even missed Bill and Francis' bickering back and forth.

Francis.

I missed him most of all. If it wasn't for him, I would have for sure been long dead or worse, undead, by now.

He had grown on me, what could I say?

It had grown dark by then and I was to say the least, more than ready to go to sleep. I let my eyes flutter shut as I cuddled deeper into the couch.


	6. Chapter 6

**Holy crapolla. I have over** **160 hits! And i just started this story last week! I am so grateful that all of you enjoy my story and I will continue to give you more for as long as I can!  
><strong>**Happy Reading!- XOXO Erika**

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><p>I faintly felt a soft hand on my cheek, trying to wake me from my dreamless slumber. I slowly opened my eyes and found green eyes, staring straight back at me, full of curiosity and wonder. I sat up, looking at the Hunter, whose hood was no longer covering his face. With the exception of some deformation on the left side of his face, he kind of actually had the potential to be really, really hot. I mean if you went for the kind of bad boy look.<p>

He had longish black hair that went to his shoulders and green eyes that you could swim in. You could tell where he had a deep tan complexion when you looked past the gashes and scars on his face. He had a strong jaw line and he was pretty muscled up…body wise I mean. He had all sorts of scars up and down his now exposed arms now that he had taken off that hoodie.

He was looking at me with concern as I sat there, ogling this…hot guy…er, Hunter. He did the head thing as he realized what I was doing and now he almost looked smug.

"No need to gloat," I said, pulling away from the back of his hand, careful to avoid the sharp, knife-like nails of his.

I looked around and saw that it was still dark outside, but somehow he had managed to light tons of candles for light. Seeing that there wasn't any electricity anymore, it only seemed rational.

He slightly moved away from me, and grabbed a white plastic bag from the table. He handed it to me and stepped backward and resumed into a crouch, watching me.

I peeked inside of the bag and found several bottles of water, a couple bags of chips, various snack-cakes (ironically enough, Twinkies), and three cans of chili.

I looked at him incredulously. How in Bob's name did he know what humans ate? Not that I was complaining or anything. This stuff beat granola bars any day of the week, but still.

"Thank you," I said, looking back at him. He nodded stiffly and resumed watching me as I wolfed down some of the Twinkies and was working on one of the bags of Doritos.

I started watching him as he stood up and walked to a window. "So what am I supposed to call you?"

He turned and stared at me for a moment, as if pondering my question. Then he went over to a small crate and lifted it. I watched him rummage around in it until he found what he was looking for. He brought a piece of paper with him as he came and tentatively sat beside me. It was a picture and he carefully sat it in my lap.

I studied it, a bit confused. There was a young man in the picture with a young little toddler girl and both were smiling as they sat in what looked like a kitchen, playing with some spaghetti noodles.

I looked at the Hunter, confused as to what he was trying to tell me.

He took the photo from my hands and flipped it over and I noticed writing on it.

_Dominic and Cousin Nikki, May 2009_

I flipped the photo back over and looked at it, then looked at the Hunter, putting the pieces of the puzzle together, slowly. It was almost an exact replica of the man sitting in the picture who was sitting next to me.

"Dominic?" I asked. "Dominic is your name?"

For the first time since I had been with him, the Hunter perked up and looked like he was finally making progress.

"That's a hot name," I said absentmindedly, forgetting to run my words through the filter part of my brain. I blushed when I realized I had said it out loud.

I looked over at Dominic and he had that smug look about him again.

I narrowed my eyes at him and stuck my tongue out.

He made what sounded like a chuckling sound come from his throat. I finished off the rest of the chips in one bag and yawned.

"Can I go back to sleep now?" I asked Dominic.

He nodded and lifted me up to my feet. His hands held mine in the air and I felt my heart start to race as he pulled me to his chest. He slowly let go of my hands and my arms found their way to my sides. I stared him in his eyes for a few seconds and then turned, confused at the small gesture.

Before I knew it, Dominic was in front of me and had my head held lightly within his grasp. His lips found mine in an instant and I froze in fear and confusion.

His lips were gentle against mine, waiting for a response from me. I felt his tongue glide the length of my bottom lip before slowly, almost unsure whether he should continue or not. I softly kissed him back, chastely giving him permission to continue.

He lightly slipped his tongue into my mouth and it was enough to drive me crazy. I heard a moan come out of my mouth that was low and appreciative, fighting my own way to get our tongues in his mouth instead of mine. He growled low and just the sound of it made muscles in my lower abdomen constrict.

I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his waist as I interlaced my fingers through his surprisingly silky hair. He carried me over to the bed and laid me down on it, covering my body with his.

He pulled back, looking at me with intense eyes. I stared back at him. His pupils were beyond dilated and his breathing, along with mine, was really ragged.

"S-s-s-sleep," he managed with a croaky voice.

"I don't want to," I said in a whiney voice, pouting for good measure. I pulled my fingers through his hair that I was beginning to love. Wait a minute. He's a freaking zombie. Well, kind of. At least he kind of had a conscience.

"Sleep," he said again, not struggling as much with the pronunciations.

I sighed. "Fine," I said, wiggling out from under him and crawling my way to the top of the mattress, flopping my head down.

I felt him as he joined me and pulled me close to his chest. I could feel the strong outline of his chest muscles through my back and it took me all the resistance I had in my bones not to turn around and sexually abuse him against his will right then and there.

His arm snaked around my waist and squeezed lightly, willing me to sleep. I sighed again. That was becoming a regular for me. I closed my eyes and drifted off.

"I can't believe I let her die," Francis said, his head hanging low.

"You couldn't have done much about it son," Bill said quietly.

Louis, Francis, and Bill were still at the safehouse. Francis hadn't gotten back to the safehouse until late yesterday afternoon, without Zoey. Louis almost went on a rampage, demanding to know what happened to her, as Francis wouldn't answer any questions. He just sat against the wall, a blank look on his face.

Louis had gotten in his face several times and wouldn't stop yelling. Finally, Francis had had enough and stood up.

"SHE'S DEAD OKAY?" he yelled in the younger man's face, backing him into a corner. "A fucking Smoker got a hold of her and I was too goddamn late. As I tried to get into the building she was pulled onto, I heard a Hunter screech and then I heard her yell. It sounded like she was dying. Is that what you wanted to fucking hear you little pansy-ass? She's dead. Zoey's gone."

Louis had a scared/sad expression on his face, and Francis let his shirt go, dropping him to the floor.

"Are you sure?" Bill asked, trying to hold back a sob.

Francis nodded.

There was silence in the room for a long time. Nobody moved, and breathing was barely audible.

Francis had gone to bed that night with her shirt from the bathroom wrapped around his fist and used it as a pillow, thanking God that it still smelled like her.

"I never got to tell her how much I loved her," Francis whispered to himself. And with that, he fell into a deep sleep.

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><p><strong>O: What will happen? Tune in next time for the next chapter of LOVELY DANGER :D Gosh that was corny. lol Leave your review please :))<br>**XOXO-Erika


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks so much for continuing to read this story! I got 65 hit alone on the last chapter and that was put up only a day ago! Don't be afraid to voice your opinions and thanks so much for those who have. I value your opinions and I'll keep them in mind :)  
><strong>XOXO-Erika

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><p>My eyes twitched open as the sunlight blared through the window and into my poor little eyes. I groaned and turned over, finding comfort in the heat source beside me on the bed. I enveloped my arms around a torso and smushed my face into a rock-hard chest.<p>

My brain caught up with my actions and I gasped, pulling back and looking up at Dominic. Then all of this information finally registered in my slow, stupid brain.

I had slept with a Hunter…not like THAT pervs. But in the same bed. I had let my guard down and was now wrapped in the arms of a zombie, a killer.

He was smirking down at me, watching my facial expressions.

"What are you looking at, Deadman?" I asked, getting up.

He snorted and sat up, watching me move around.

I'm not sure how, but somehow my shoes got taken off last night and I tripped over them, almost landing on my face. Dominic jumped up, quick as a flash of lightning, and caught me before I could eat carpet.

"C-c-careful," he stuttered, smiling now.

I shot daggers at my savior and stuck my tongue out at him. He pulled me closer really fast and caressed my tongue with his.

I melted in his arms and kissed him roughly. I felt him smiling against the kiss and he broke it.

I sat, poking out my bottom lip, pouting yet again.

He actually laughed, full on and cracking up. He gently bit my lip, tugging it a bit.

I kissed him back chastely.

He smiled and turned away. He picked up my shoes and threw them at me, and I caught them swiftly. As I was putting them on, Dominic went around to all the windows, checking for any signs of trouble on the ground below.

I finished with my shoes and pulled my hair down and ran my fingers through it, trying to unknot any tangles. I was bent over, gathering my hair in my hands, when I heard a deep growl.

I stopped and looked over at Dominic, who was watching me.

"What's your problem?"

He was looking at my hair as it was still in my hands. I began putting it up again and he growled menacingly again.

"You want me to leave my hair down?"

He didn't respond; so I began putting it up yet again. I froze when he crossed the room and grabbed my wrists, stopping me.

"I take that as a yes," I said, almost giggling.

He went to a closet and came back with a pistol and a rifle. I felt my eyes widen as he approached me. He handed over the rifle and dragged me over to the window.

He pointed towards several zombies roaming around aimlessly in the street.

Almost instantly understanding, I opened the window and aimed the gun down at the street. I sniped the majority of them. It almost made me wonder what the rest of the world was like; if any of the remaining survivors had ever found any kind of cure for this madness.

I turned back to Dominic, who was watching my every move, and took the pistol from him. He gripped it tighter and I looked at him.

"I'm not going to shoot you Dominic. Just give me the damn gun in case we get separated or something."

He looked like he was debating the pros and cons for a moment, and then relented.

I tucked the gun into my waistband. It was time to get my mind together and go back to my friends. God knows what kind of hell that they've been through since yesterday morning, thinking that I had been killed.

"Dominic, you have to take me back to my friends," I said, looking at the floor. He growled in response.

I looked him straight in his eyes. "I have to Dominic. They're my family. They think I'm dead right now. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be alive at this moment."

He was looking at me, clearly annoyed. He ran his hand through my soft hair that was curling around my face. He closed his eyes.

"Please Dom," I whispered.

Without warning, he crouched down.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, puzzled.

"Do you want to go or not?" he thundered. You could tell it was hard for him to say anything, much less a full question.

Rendered speechless at his words, I jumped on his back and held on tight.

I hid my face in his back, practically feeling how high we had jumped. He smelled like pine trees and spices, strangely enough, instead of the normal smell of regurgitation.

We flew over buildings with ease and finally came to a stop to an unfamiliar place.

"Where are we?" I asked Dominic.

He pointed to his ear, signaling to listen. I faintly heard gunshots. I felt my eyes light up and I ran to the side of the metal rooftop. I noticed we were still in town, but on the opposite side of the water tower instead of in front of it, we were behind it. I could see three individual figures in the middle of a road, fighting off a horde of zombies.

It looked like they were winning at the moment, so I chose not to yell out their names in glee like I originally wanted to. I watched them all rapidly taking out zombie after zombie, until they were all dead.

I turned back to face Dominic. He was looking at me with sad eyes, almost as if knowing that this was the last time he was going to see me again. I reached up and kissed him sweetly on his lips, savoring the moment.

He wrapped his arms around my torso tightly and kissed me back. I pulled back.

"Hold on a second okay?"

He nodded and sat on an air-conditioning unit, watching me.

I ran over to the overhang of the building. "FRANCIS!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

His head shot up from looking over at Louis and looked me dead in the eyes. His expression changed from grim to elation in an instant.

"ZOEY!" he bellowed out, and ran for the building, pumping his legs as fast as he could. I watched him as he forcefully broke into the building and heard him crashing through it. I looked over at Dominic and grinned. The grin I had turned into a frown as I realized he looked a bit nervous, and I walked up to him and hugged him, comforting him while I could.

I heard several gunshots below in the building and more crashing.

"Son of a BITCH!" I heard Francis yell as I heard more crashing below. I giggled and then took my position in-between Dominic and the door to the stairway.

After a minute, Francis finally made it to the rooftop and burst through the door. The look on his face was beyond happy…until he caught sight of Dominic. Then the expression turned deadly.

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><p><strong>o.O What's he gonna doooo? Leave your thoughts in the reviews!<strong> **...I just realized that rhymed...xD**


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks so much for sticking with me! I know I didn't update yesterday but I do need a break sometimes. Plus I'm starting a new L4D fic that one of my readers requested. Allz I can say is that its going to be awesome and it's coming soon. So in the mean time, Happy Reading :)  
>XOXO-Erika<br>**

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><p>"Zoey, MOVE!" he shouted, raising the gun.<p>

I spread my hands and stood my ground. "Francis, don't shoot! He won't hurt you! DON'T SHOOT!"

His face faltered a bit, confused. "Zoey, it's a fucking Hunter!"

"Francis, he saved my life!"

Bill and Louis finally caught up with Francis and were both huffing and staring in shock at the scene.

"Zoey, he could kill you," Francis said, weapon still raised.

"Yes, but he hasn't has he? He saved me from the Smoker Francis. He won't hurt me. Or any of you for that matter if I have a say in it…"

Bill was watching the both of us carefully. "Francis, he doesn't seem to be a threat. He hasn't made a move, let alone tried to kill her."

"I don't care," Francis hissed. "It's a threat to all of us."

"ITS name is Dominic. And he can understand everything you say, so don't go offending him. And if he was such a threat, don't you think you wouldn't exactly be standing here talking to me right now?" I hissed back at him.

He slowly lowered the Uzi, clearly not liking the whole concept.

Louis looked like he was scared half to death and Bill just merely looked curious.

"There's got to be a catch in all of this," Francis grumbled.

I relaxed a little bit, not much, but enough to show that there was no reason to be afraid of Dominic.

"So he's like your pet or something that you adopted?" Louis stupidly asked.

Dominic growled softly behind me. "He's not a damn pet of mine Louis. He's here because he wants to be. I'm not holding him captive."

"So are we going to head out or not?" Bill asked loudly.

All heads swerved his way, getting crazy looks from everyone but me. "What?" he asked. "With Zoe around he's clearly not a threat."

Francis sighed. "I freaking guess," he said, turning towards me.

He picked me up and hugged me with all of his might.

I giggled. "Francis let me down! I am NOT a doll!"

He chuckled and set me on my feet. "Just glad to have you back Babe."

Growling came from Dominic behind me. "Oh shut up. You're just going to have to deal with it," I said, hugging Dominic.

I looked back at the guys.

"Not only did she shush a fucking Hunter, but she hugged one too," Louis said, staring. "What the hell is wrong with this picture?"

I walked over and hit Louis in his arm. "You shut up too."

I looked over at Francis and he was glaring at Dominic.

I put my hand on Francis' cheek. "Play nice."

He looked down at me and away from Dominic and grinned. "You know me better than that Zoey. That's one thing I don't do."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed Dominic by his arm. "Let's all go downstairs and come up with a plan okay?"

Everyone agreed and Louis led the way down to the second floor and off the roof.

It turned out that the building was a hotel, so we let ourselves in a room and shut the door, securing it well.

I flopped down on the disheveled bed, staring up at the ceiling. I watched Dominic as he came and sat down on the floor beside my leg, surveying the room.

"So does Dominic talk?" Louis asked, putting down his weaponry on a nearby table.

I sat up and looked at him questioningly. He shrugged. "He can, but it hurts him," I told them. "Unless you've heard him speak before, it's a little hard to understand."

"And you've heard him talk?" Francis asked, leaning up against the threshold of the bathroom. The bathroom was facing the two full size beds, and he was standing directly in front of me.

I looked up at him, suspiciously. "Yeah. But only 'cause I annoyed him."

I grinned down at Dominic, and he actually rolled his eyes. He leaned his head against my leg, and I saw Francis frown.

"You two are awfully chummy," he commented, putting down the Uzi, but making sure that I saw him keep the pistol at his hip instead of taking it off like he usually did in a safehouse.

"When a Hunter brings you Twinkies and Doritos to eat, you kind of get to be friends," I said simply.

"Twinkies and Doritos huh?" Francis grumbled.

I heard that tone and I knew what was coming next. "Francis, drop it," I replied icily.

He glared at me and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

"Well that was interesting," Bill said, lighting a cigarette.

"Can it Old Man," we heard gruffly from the bathroom.

I sighed and absentmindedly started playing with Dominic's hair.

"You know Zoey, it's really none of my business, but maybe you should talk to him. He beat himself up over loosing you. Really bad too," Louis said, sitting on a table next to a now useless television.

He was right. Getting off on the wrong foot was not what I wanted. He was my best friend.

"You guys going to be okay in here without me in here?" I asked the remaining men. Dominic nodded and so did Bill, so I stood up.

I didn't bother knocking on the door because I knew it was no use trying to when he would have just locked me out. I saw two giant legs sticking out from the tub in front of me, the booted feet against the tiled walls. I marched over to the tub. "Can we talk?"

"So talk," he said, staring into space.

"Alone? Where nobody can hear every word we say?"

He sighed and got out of the empty tub.

I turned around and opened the door to find that Bill was leaning against the door with his ear against the smooth wood.

I glared at him and he grinned sheepishly.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed a shotgun. "We'll be back okay?" I said to Dominic, and he nodded, watching me as I walked around the room and out the door, Francis trailing behind me. We went in the room across the hall and shut the door.

"What's going on with-" I didn't even get to finish my question because Francis had me up against the door, his lips against mine.

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><p><strong>:O Leave your comments and opinions in the reviews! XOXO-Erika<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey you guys! I have over 400 hits! I'm so excited! Keep 'em coming! Now if only we could get that many on the reviews! lol Thanks so much!  
>XOXO-Erika<br>**

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><p>Confused at first, I made no move to return the gesture. His lips were surprisingly soft against my mouth.<p>

Thoughtlessly, I started kissing him back, thinking that it was about damn time.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back fervidly. I felt him respond enthusiastically and run his fingers through my loose hair.

I kissed him as he wrapped his arms around my waist and reached down to lightly squeeze my buttocks. He lifted he against his hips and I felt a large bulge in his pants where he was obviously was heavily aroused.

He tore away from my lips and worked his way down to my neck, nipping lightly. I constricted my hold on his neck and loved the feel of him in my arms.

"God I love you Zoey," I heard him say, and I felt my body stiffen.

Thoughts were racing through my head as I untangled my body from his and stood in front of him.

"What do you mean?" I asked him, crossing my arms.

"What do you think Zoey?" he asked in a raspy voice. He was clearly still aroused, if the bulge in his pants wasn't enough of a hint, his majorly dilated eyes were. There was a predatory look in his eyes and it was a major turn on for me. Heh…talk about irony.

"Zoey, how can you not know?" he asked, emotions somewhat in check after a pregnant pause of silence.

He had shown no signs of even the slightest interest in that aspect. If anything, he acted like a big, overprotective, brother that I had never wanted, but I still wanted him to love me like a lover.

"Francis, there is no way you love me," I said, glaring at him, almost hating him for screwing with my emotions like this.

"Zoey, I love you in every way," he insisted. "When I heard you scream the other day when you were on the rooftop, I died inside. I thought that the Hunter had gotten to you. And I knew that by the time that I would've gotten up to you, you would've been gone. I thought he had killed you. I thought that I was never going to be able to see you again. When I saw you on the roof, it was like my heart felt whole again. I love you Zoey. I always have," he told me, taking my face in his rough hands.

I yanked my head away. "Francis, why didn't you at least come check? I was up there for at least ten minutes more while Dominic finished off the Smoker. You could've been up there and gotten me by then."

I looked him in the eyes and saw a mixture of sadness, rage, and confusion all in one.

"Zoe-" he started, but I cut him off.

"When you're done mind-fucking with me, you know where I am," I said, shoving him backwards and leaving the room in a hurry. I slammed the door behind me and paused in the hall.

There was a mirror beside the door and I checked my image and fixed my hair into the ponytail, not in the mood to please anyone at the moment.

I stormed into the room where the rest of the gang was sitting around the room at various places. Bill was relaxing in the bed closest to the window, Louis was still sitting on the table where we left him, and Dominic was sitting on the ground with his back to a corner, watching me stomp my way into the room.

"You okay Zoey?" Bill asked me, sitting up.

"Just fucking peachy," I hissed back, sitting down on the other bed and staring at the wall, angry as ever.

There was a very noticeable tension in the room as I sat there and silently fumed.

The silence was broken with a loud thud that came from the other side of the door to the hallway. There was loud crashing, and Louis jumped from his spot and opened the door.

It was obvious that the loud crashes were coming from the room across the hall. We heard glass break and loud cussing from behind the shut door.

"SON…OF…A…FUCKING…BITCH!" came from the room between obvious hits to the mirrors in the room.

I rolled my eyes and put my head in my hands.

"For once, I'm kind of glad that we don't have to pay hotel bills anymore," Bill muttered under his breath, wincing as another thunderous crash came from across the hall.

I felt Dominic move and sit beside me, putting his arm around me. I looked over at him and smiled.

"Zoey, I think you should go over there and calm him down," said a reluctant Louis, still standing by the door.

I snorted. "After all that, you want me to go risk my neck and face the monster?"

Dominic softly growled beside me. "No offense," I said to him.

"He'll calm down eventually," I said, laying my head against Dominic's shoulder.

Bill eyed us warily and then shrugged. "I suppose you're right."

"What did you do to piss him off so bad?" Louis asked, sitting back on the table.

I winced. "Essentially, I called him a liar about the reason he was so moody lately. And he didn't take it too well."

"Clearly," Louis said, still listening to the slamming of inanimate objects against walls.

After a few minutes, it all stopped. The door slung open and in walked an eerily calm Francis.

He looked straight at me and narrowed his eyes at the sight of me so close to Dominic.

He grabbed the Uzi off of the table and grabbed several other clips.

"Where are you off to?" I asked.

"Does it matter?" he shot back, undoubtedly still angry.

"Uh, yeah," I said with vehemence.

"If you must know you little nosyass, I'm going to blow off some steam, then work on getting us food," he said, taking the shotgun from my back and strapping it on himself.

"I didn't know you had any steam left," I said, glaring at him.

"Well I do. I'll be back, not that you would care," he said forcefully, and walked out the door.

"Louis, go with him," Bill said. "He's not thinking clearly. Make sure he doesn't go kill himself."

Louis grudgingly gathered his guns quickly and walked out the door, mumbling to himself about being sent to get eaten by the big bad wolf.

I sighed and sat in silence. The sound of rapid gunshots made its way to our ears around ten minutes later.

Thoughts started swarming around in my brain at that point. What was the team going to do now that there was tension within the group? I don't know that I could handle Francis in a constant snit like this. He had told me he loved me, but I'm sure its only because he hasn't seen another female that hasn't tried to feed on his brains here as of late. He hadn't even made any indication that he was even remotely partial to me.

While I was rummaging this through my head, I wasn't exactly aware that Dominic had moved behind me until he lightly kissed the back of my neck. I felt myself lean against his chest, inhaling his woodsy scent.

My nerves were still rattled from the whole fight with Francis, so I decided I needed a good distraction.

"Are you hungry?" I asked him suddenly.

I turned around and looked at his face. He grimaced when I made him look into my eyes.

"You have to eat somehow," I said. "Can you eat human food?"

He looked like he was struggling for something. "I c-can," he said hoarsely. "B-but it d-d-doesn't do much. I n-n-need blood."

I stared at him. Blood. What the hell was he? Part vampire?

"Blood? Um. Okay…" I said, my mind racing.

I looked over at Bill. But he looked just as shell-shocked as I was.

"So what do you usually do? To get blood I mean?" I asked, turning back to him.

He frowned again. "I d-do what I h-h-have to."

I quickly comprehended what that meant. I looked at him.

"Go," I said. "Go get some or whatever. We'll be right here waiting for you."

He started spastically shaking his head, but I gripped the sides of his head for him to look at me. "I don't blame you for what has happened. Go. I'll be fine here. I promise."

He sat there for a moment, contemplating. He finally stood up and stood me up with him. He grasped my hips and pulled me towards him for a long, sweet kiss.

My head spun he kissed me so long. I felt my lungs silently screaming for air, but I didn't care. I felt his tongue wrap possessively around mine for a split second, then he pulled back.

"I-I'll be b-back," he said, kissed my forehead, and went to the window.

I watched him as he opened it, got into his famous crouch, and leapt out of the window with ease.

There was a full minute of silence before I looked over at Bill, who was now sitting up, with wide eyes. He was looking from me to the window, and back again. His mouth was hung open.

"Shut your mouth Bill, we don't want you catching flies," I said, lying back on the bed.

"Zoey," he said slowly, once gaining words of comprehension again.

I looked over at him, not really wanting to have this conversation.

"You do realize, that this is going to cause so much trouble," he said.

I shrugged. "The whole world is full of zombies, Francis is mad at me, I'm totally confused on what to do about that," I said, waving my hand at the window. "And we might die at any minute due to lifeless zombies wanting to eat our brains for breakfast. What else could I possibly get into?"

Bill sighed and shook his head, reaching for his cigarettes in the front pocket of his shirt. "Zoe, this is not what I had in mind when you and Francis picked me and Louis up."

I smiled at the old man. "Expect the unexpected."

"And hope like hell that Francis doesn't go on a rampage when he finds out about you and Lover Jumper out there."

I groaned. "Please just stay out of it Bill. I don't need you nagging me about it."

I watched him as he pulled out another cigarette and lit it. "Just be careful Zoey."

I flopped down back on the bed face first. "UGGHHH."

I ended up falling asleep, wishing that my situation wasn't going to get any worse than it already worse.

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><p><strong>Leave your comments and opinions in the reviews people! :D<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**Goood Morning...wherever you are! xD I love that one movie with Robin Williams where he's all "GOOD MORNING VIETNAMMMMMM!" xD he's freakin' hilarious. Anyways. Thanks for reading and when I woke up this morning first thing I did was check my stats and believe it or not, I had 167 hits yesterday ALONE! I was like :O. Thanks so much and I decided to reward all of you with yet another chapter.  
>Happy Reading! XOXO-Erika<br>**

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><p>I was woken with a start by a strong arm wrapping around my torso and pulling me closer to a chest. I turned my head slightly and noticed Francis was asleep and had unconsciously cradled me in his arm in a tightly manner.<p>

I looked around I noticed that Dominic wasn't back yet, but everyone else was now asleep in various positions around the room. I knew it was absolutely pointless to try and get out of Francis' vice grip on my torso so I just laid there, and willed myself to go back to sleep.

I felt the sunshine softly burning my eyelids, and I slowly opened my eyes. I no longer felt Francis' death grip around me so I sat up and stretched.

"Morning sunshine," Louis said perkily while taking a bite of a rather large beef jerky stick.

"Hi," I replied smiling.

"Want some food?" he asked, throwing a package of chocolate doughnuts at me. I caught them and grinned.

"Thanks."

I looked around the room and noticed Dominic was back, looking actually somewhat, if at all possible, healthier. His eyes somehow shined more and he looked kind of happy. He was sitting on the dresser by the TV, seemingly waiting for me to return from sleep.

I smiled at him and got up. My muscles were tense and I groaned from the achiness. I walked over to him and put one leg on the dresser beside Dominic and reached for my toes. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him stand up and reach for my leg. He lifted it tenderly, still not trying to cut me with his sharp nails.

As clumsy as I was, I nearly fell over only using one leg, and steadied myself putting my hands on his shoulders. Once I got used to the height of my leg being like that, Dominic raised my leg even higher. I felt my muscles strain and I let my head fall back, not used to the unnecessary pain.

I heard the door open and something drop on the ground.

"What in the hell?" I heard Francis roar, and I opened my eyes. Dominic instantly dropped my leg and looked over at him as well. Without warning, Francis had charged Dominic and slammed him by his throat against a wall. He was holding him by his throat and was obviously squeezing quite tightly on Dominic's windpipe.

I launched myself at Francis and jumped on his back. "Francis let him go! He wasn't doing anything!"

"BULLSHIT! DO YOU THINK I'M BLIND?" he replied.

"He wasn't! He was just helping me stretch. I swear to God!"

"Then explain why it looked like he was fucking you."

I usually would've blushed, but didn't dare at a time like this. "That would have to consist of the removal of clothing," I replied.

I wrapped my arms around his neck in a chokehold and squeezed lightly. "Let him go France," I whispered in his ear, using a nickname I called him before Bill and Louis joined our journey.

His grip visibly lessoned and let him go. There was a guttural growl coming from Dominic and I shot a look at him. "Don't," I said.

He looked pointedly at my arms and I sighed. Francis was still heaving with anger but said nothing about me moving.

I kissed Francis' temple and jumped down off of him. I stood in front of Dominic and crossed my arms. "We can't keep doing this Francis. We're a team, and we're ripping each other apart at the seams. We have to stick together in this, otherwise, we're going to die," I said, watching him as he gained control of his emotions.

He waited a moment before he spoke. "You're right Zoey, you're perfectly right."

I watched him as he turned around and reached for his guns that he had dropped on the floor.

"What are you doing?" I asked, suddenly warily nervous.

"I'm leaving Zoe."

My heart sank in my chest. He couldn't leave. Not after all this time. We had to stay together!  
>"Francis, no you're not," I said in a panicky voice. I stepped towards him and stopped him from grabbing a backpack that had some supplies.<p>

"I have to Zoe. This is the only way that you can survive. You don't need me anymore. Stay with Bill, Louis, and Lover Boy over there, and you should be okay."

I felt tears forming in my eyes. "France, you can't just leave me. We need you," I said. I started backing up and put my hands on my head, not knowing what to do. I bumped into the wall behind me and didn't move. I only had one last resort to make him stay.

He said nothing as he continued to load his gun one last time.

"I need you," I said, audibly to only him.

He stopped what he was doing and looked at me. He crossed the space between us easily in a few strides. He gently took my face in his hands and kissed me so sweetly that it nearly made my toes curl. My lips tingled as he applied just a bit more of pressure and deepened the kiss, which as of that moment, I wasn't exactly objecting to.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on for dear life as he picked me up, arms grasping my hips tightly.

A guttural screech came from behind me and I broke away from Francis and turned around just in time to watch Dominic bound out of the window, royally pissed off.

I stared at the open window for a second, and then glanced at the other two people in the room.

Bill was glaring at the window with a scowl on his face; while Louis was gaping my way, mouth wide open and all.

"Louis if you don't stop staring in 2.5 seconds I swear to Jeebus my boot will be so far up your ass you're going to be flossing with my shoelaces," Francis retorted behind me.

I could still feel his body heat against mine. I crossed my arms for good measure to Francis' threat, well more like promise, and effectively Louis looked away.

"Well what the hell are we going to do now?" Louis asked, clearly unsure of what to do at the moment.

"We better head out, since we're not exactly certain what Dom plans on doing now that you two have gone and irked Dom," Bill said, glowering towards Francis and I.

"Shut it Old Man," Francis said, squeezing lightly on my hip, which he was still gripping. It was almost surreal to me. Ever since Francis had recovered me from my dorm room, I had almost instantly fallen in love with him. But I never had any clue that he felt the same way I did.

"What about Dominic?" I asked, and felt Francis freeze behind me.

"He probably won't be coming back Zoe," Bill said softly, trying to deliver the news as easily as possible.

I frowned. "He'll get over it. He'll come back."

Francis turned me to face him. "Zoey, if he comes back, I am not sharing you."

I tried to say something but he just covered my mouth with his hand. "I've accepted the fact that you're trying to help him and get him away from this crazyass world, as hard as it's going to be. I get that. But I refuse to let him be all over you like he was. Why do you think I went so crazy yesterday?" he questioned me, looking me in my eyes.

I sighed and shut my eyes. Three months ago, I would've given myself a pep-talk and attempted to beat the crap out of some guy who attempted to take over my life and make decisions without consulting me first. But this was vastly different. This was Francis.

"Fighn" I tried to say, his hand still covering my mouth.

"What?" he asked, a puzzled look on his face.

I rolled my eyes and pulled his hand down. "Fine."

He smiled and kissed me briefly on my mouth before turning to pack up.

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><p><strong>Jalos: I'm glad you like my story :D I've actually read your story Guardian and I loved it! I usually write the story all out and break it into chapters anyways. And I am starting to get a small case of writer's block too. Oh well, don't we all :P<strong>

**Put your input in the reviews and I shall be happy :D  
>XOXO-Erika :P<strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**Ah. Hello my lovelies! I had an epic night of awesomeness and last night I got over my writer's block. It was at 3 in the morning, but better late than never right? lol All I know is that one of you readers will be extremely happy now and won't have to threaten to send Tanks to my house to get me to update.. lmao. Well as of right now I have over 820 hits and I am soooo happy! I want to say thanks to all the people that have added this story to their favorites or to their story alerts. I love you guys!  
><strong>**Happy Reading! XOXO-Erika**

**I don't own jack-nothin'. Valve does. So don't threaten to sue me!**

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><p>I packed my clothes back in the backpack and stuffed the side pockets with whatever kind of food I could.<p>

"Everyone ready?" Louis asked, once he was packed.

Various forms of yes came and we all headed out the door.

Bill took the lead, I was behind him, Francis took his spot behind me, and Louis watched our backs from the rear.

We got out of the building with ease and we finally got into the lobby. It looked pretty okay except for some upside-down chairs, broken vases, and zombie corpses everywhere.

"Wow Francis, I knew you were clumsy but jeez," I said, almost laughing.

I felt him smack my butt and I glared at him. He had an arrogant grin on his face. "That'll teach you to call me clumsy."

I hit him in his arm with the butt of my sawed off shotgun.

"Not nice," I said, giving him dirty looks.

"Good to know some things haven't changed," I heard Bill say.

We broke open the doors and peered outside cautiously. There were a few stray walkers, and I took them out with my extra pistol, not wanting to use the big ammo on the pitiful creatures.

As we made our way down the street, Louis asked, "Do you think we're going to have to worry about Dom attacking us?"

I sighed as I walked. "I don't know. But I hope to God he doesn't pull anything stupid."

"Damn right," Francis retorted behind me.

I elbowed him hard in his ribs.

He let out a loud puff of breath. "What'd I do?"

"You're being a jerk," I said, and continued walking.

I watched Bill as he took off without warning and pulled out his combat knife. I always like to call it the Rambo knife because it looked like the one Sylvester Stallone used in First Blood.

He un-hesitantly attacked a zombie that was lingering in a doorway of what once was a cute little doughnut shop. He mercilessly stabbed the man in his neck and chest repeatedly until the carcass fell to the ground, not making a sign of movement.

I looked at him while he simply wiped off his knife and put it back in its sheath.

"What?" he asked. "It beats wasting ammo."

I chuckled at the older man and we continued on. We got to a point where we didn't see any zombies at all.

"This is totally weird. I'm calling zombie bullshit," I said, slowly scanning rooftops.

"It is a bit wei-" Louis said, but was interrupted by the ground rumbling.

"What the fuck?" Francis asked, cocking his gun puling me closer to him.

The rumbling grew nearer and nearer until this big ugly beast that looked like it was made of rock came crashing through a building, sending it crashing to the ground.

It let out a ferocious roar and started charging toward Francis and I.

"Split up and shoot the damn thing!" Bill yelled and without question started shooting.

Francis' gun was steadily spitting out bullets while I shot round after round into the beast's body. Louis started yelling at it and had it distracted while we reloaded as fast we could manage and we all went back to firing. It picked up a nearby squad car and hurled it at Bill. He barely ducked in time for it to hit and demolish a dumpster behind him.

I could tell we were wearing the thing out and I kept firing at it consistently. I don't know why, but I felt a little brave and started walking closer to it, still shooting it. But that was a mistake. It suddenly caught sight of me and I almost panicked.

I kept shooting but it barreled towards me. It swiped at me as if I was a bothersome fly, and boy I went flying.

I screamed until I hit the hard brick wall of an old factory building. I hit the ground so hard it knocked the wind out of me. My head hurt so much, and the last thing I remember was Francis coming over to me begging me to stay awake.

To say that I was in pain when I came around would be an understatement. The pain started in my ribs and soon enough it spread across the whole left side of my chest.

"Good god," I moaned, wincing as I tried to sit up, but was quickly stopped.

"Zoey, don't try to sit up, you need to rest," Francis whispered in my ear.

I was caught off guard and I jumped, instantly regretting it. I lay back on the ground where I was and sighed.

"How bad is it?" I asked him softly.

"You re-cracked your ribs and they're worse than they were before," Bill replied from across the room.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning we're not going anywhere for a while until you're healed," Francis said behind me as he carefully pulled me up so my back was against his hard chest. I leaned my head back against him.

"Do you need something for the pain?" Francis asked me softly.

I shook my head. "I don't like how that stuff makes me feel."

"Zoey, if you're in pain, then you need to take medicine," he insisted, squeezing my hand.

"I'm not taking the fucking pills Francis, so drop it," I said icily, closing my eyes. While I knew that the pills would probably help me, it wouldn't make me heal any quicker. I decided that I wouldn't take any pain medication unless it was necessary and I had to chop off my leg or something. It could be used on something better than a few cracked ribs.

"Is there a hospital we can get supplies at anywhere around here?" Louis asked Bill, who was scanning a map on a metal table that held what remained of our ammo, along with a little extra food and clips that wouldn't last long.

"Actually there is," Bill said, perking up. "But it's a ways to make it on foot without all of us being in top shape."

"That does us a lot of good," I muttered.

I felt Francis squeeze one of my hands he was holding and lightly nuzzle my neck. It was an innocent gesture but it still made me blush.

"Francis," I said, biting the inside of my lip.

"Hmm?" he replied, his mouth still against my neck.

"Behave."

I heard him snicker and he lifted his head away.

"Maybe we could find a vehicle or something that maybe still works so we wouldn't have to worry about leaving people behind," Bill said to himself, still looking at the map and thankfully not paying attention to what Francis was doing.

"That's actually a really good idea. It sure as hell beats walkin'. Plus we can play hockey," Francis exclaimed behind me.

"Hockey? Have you lost your damned mind?" I asked him, slightly twisting my head to look at him.

"No I haven't. Road hockey! Hit a zombie and its ten points. Extra if you could hit the special infected," he explained.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. "What has this world come to?"

"Shit," replied both Bill and Francis, at the same time.

"Great, now that the decision is made, let's go get that car Louis," Bill announced, grabbing several guns and lighting up a cigarette.

"We'll be back," Louis said as they walked out of the red metal door in the corner of the room and shut it behind them.

I sighed and laid my head against the strong shoulder behind me. "So what do we do now?"

"Wait."

"Thanks for pointing that out Captain Obvious," I glowered.

"Not my fault you didn't specify," Francis said with amusement.

I had been thinking about something and I wanted to know what it was.

"So what happened while I was passed out?" I asked, tilting my head up so I could look at Francis.

He grimaced. "Well let's just say a certain someone decided they didn't like the Tank hitting on you and decided to pull an Edward Scissorhands on the big hunk of rock's ass."

I was majorly confused. "Wait, Dominic killed the Tank?"

"We did most of the damage. Or should I say you did. And speaking of that, you are to never pull that kind of stupid shit again, ya hear?" Francis growled at me.

My eyebrows rose rebelliously. "Oh really now? And who elected you leader of this outfit?"

He scowled. "Nobody. I'm telling you that you nearly gave me a heart attack so don't do it again. While it was badass, I nearly lost you if that damn Hunter wouldn't have showed up and distracted the fucking beast."

I sat there, thinking for a moment. "You didn't shoot Dom did you?" I asked him, my eyes narrowing at the thought.

"No I didn't shoot your pet," he huffed. "Thought about it though. He stayed around long enough to see that you were going to make it and then took off again."

"Oh," I said. I had to admit I was kind of disappointed, but it's not like Dom could just forgive me right off the bat.

Francis went back to nuzzling my neck and I couldn't help but giggle. Wow. Giggle. I haven't done that since I was a freshman in high school.

"What's wrong Zoe? A little ticklish?" Francis asked, feigning innocence.

"Quit Francis!" I said, still laughing when he lightly nibbled on my earlobe.

I heard what sounded like a tank pulling up to the door. There was a clanking noise.

"Alright lovebirds! Let's go! We have a hospital to get to!" I heard Bill yell.

Francis sighed and carefully got up and picked up the pre-packed supplies and threw the bag out of the door.

He came over to me and scooped me up in his arms, carrying me bridal style out the door to the vehicle.

Once I regained my vision from temporarily blinded by the horrid sun, I saw that somehow, Bill and Louis had managed to find what looked like an armored truck.

Louis was hanging out of the front passenger side window. "Your chariot awaits m' lady," he said in a horrible English accent.

"My God," Francis mumbled, shaking his head.

He put me in the back seat of the truck carefully, slid in beside me, and soon enough we were off to the hospital.

My ribs were definitely killing me with all the moving I was already doing, and Bill's crazyass driving wasn't exactly helping either.

"FIVE POINTS! HIT 'EM BILL!" Louis screamed when he saw a zombie stumbling in the road about half an hour later.

We had stopped by the small hospital, clinic really, and gotten more than enough supplies to last us a good while.

We had to make a quick pit stop in the parking lot though so Francis could siphon some of the gas out of the cars and into the truck's humongous gas tank.

"Do I want to know where you learned to do this?" I asked, sticking my head out of the window, watching him as he blew some air into one end of an old garden-hose and quickly stick the other end of the hose into the hole of the truck's tank.

He grinned at me. "I grew up with a bunch of bikers in LA, Babe. Do you really want to know?"

I rolled my eyes and leaned back in the seat. We took off, in search of some kind of life besides soulless creeps who wanted to eat our brains.

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><p><strong>PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF BOB SOMEBODY REVIEW THIS! :D I LOVE YOU FOREVA!<br>XOXO-Erika**


	12. Chapter 12

**So HI you guys! Heh. Look at me. Comin' in all sly and stuff after not updating for several days. xD Thanks so much for the reviews and stuff. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.** **So I had another case of writer's block and I had to get with my proof-reader Britney-ney16 for a good lunch of PB&J sandwiches at my house to discuss ideas. And I have to say, she's a freakin' genius! To say the least, you guys are gunna be like :O. xD In the meantime, HAPPY READING!  
>XOXO-Erika :))<strong>

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><p>We had been traveling for two weeks now and we were on the highway now, avoiding car pileups and occasionally scoring some zombie-hockey points when needed. I was getting a bit sick of all this. Constantly running for our lives, eating stupid granola bars. I mean really? Was it too much to ask for a big juicy steak every once in a while?<p>

We stopped at a run-down motel. Even when the world hadn't gone to shit you could tell this place was a real dump.

I gathered my pistol to my hip and sighed as the rest of the gang got out of the truck.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Francis look at me weirdly.

"You okay?" he asked softly once Bill and Louis were out of the vehicle, checking things out.

"Yes and no," I said, loading my guns with ammo.

"Explain."

I put the guns in my lap and stared at the seat in front of me. "I'm sick of this. I'm sick of running, I'm sick of killing, I'm sick of not being able to take a shower whenever I want, I'm tired of sleeping in shifts, I'm tired of everything Francis. I don't want this," my mouth spewed.

"Zoe, it's not like the rest of us chose this life either," Francis said, putting his arm around my shoulder and hugging me close to him.

"I know but all I want is all of this shit to stop. I just want to go back to my dorm, and watch horror movies for the rest of my life," I cried, tears spilling from my eyes.

I knew I was being a total baby about it, but I just couldn't handle keeping it inside anymore.

I felt Francis grab my opposite hip and turn it towards him, taking me into his lap. Now that I think about it, I was actually straddling him…but it didn't matter because he wasn't trying to make a pass at me, just comforting.

I laid my head on his chest and sobbed, almost ruining his shirt with my tears.

"It's okay Zoey. I promise you, after we get through with this mess we'll get a house and you can watch all the horror stories you want," he assured me.

I was sort of starting to calm down. I wiped my eyes and looked at him sadly.

I watched him as he smirked lightly. "I'll even get you an endless supply of Oreos and chocolate milk."

I couldn't help but smile. "The man knows a way to my heart," I said, gently kissing his lips.

"Always babe," he said, kissing me back.

Rapid tapping on the window most rudely interrupted us, and I glared over at Bill.

"Let's go kiddos, we got company," he said.

I felt my eyes grow wide as I scrambled off of Francis' lap and outside the door. Without thinking I automatically cocked my gun and aimed it at whoever was in my sight and moving.

Ahead of me, Louis was strangely talking to several people whom I didn't recognize. My first thought was elation, and then came reasonability. We didn't even know these people.

"Who the fuck is this?" I heard Francis bellow out behind me.

There were three guys and one woman, all sticking together and obviously very skeptical of the situation at hand. One of the men had long blonde hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. He was kind of intimidating, but not so much that a few bullets couldn't take him out. Another was looking our way. He had hair that went a little past his ears and was raven black. He also had a lip-ring, which oddly, I found kind of hot on him. The last guy looked like he was completely bored and was looking around, obviously scouting. He surprisingly looked like a rainbow threw up on his head because his hair was different variations of blue, green, purple and dark red. The woman with them was a little taller than me and had her curly hair French-braided in pigtails. They were all dressed in jeans and different pullover jackets that were obviously heavily loaded down with ammo.

"Zoe, come here," Louis said, calling me over to meet our new "friends". I warily walked over and looked over at Louis, waiting for him to continue what he started.

"Guys this is Adam, Nero, Jack, and Natalie," Louis explained, pointing from Blondie to Rainbow-head to Lip-ring-Hottie, and finally to Curly.

I halfway smiled and nodded at them. I felt a hand slip through mine and squeeze. I looked up at Francis beside me and leaned into his touch.

"I would say it's great to meet you all," Francis said. "But the circumstances suck ass."

Natalie laughed. "I couldn't agree more."

"This loudmouth is Francis," Louis said, grinning at the now glowering biker beside me. "And Mr. Grumpy over there is Bill."

"Glad to know there's someone out there besides us," Adam replied, smiling warmly.

"We've been traveling for a while now. Is there any way we can get a couple rooms?" Bill asked, getting gruffly to the point.

"Yeah sure," Nero answered, and started towards the buildings.

"You guys go ahead," Louis said, getting the bags from the back of the truck.

Francis dragged me towards the small checkout window and laughed when Nero handed him some card keys. "You mean they still work?"

Nero smiled widely. "Surprisingly yes. All the electricity here comes from some solar panels on the roof."

I looked into the small room. "They could afford solar panels, yet they kept this wallpaper that's probably from 1974?"

"Unfortunately," Nero said, looking around at the walls too. "I gave you guys four rooms, I hope that's good enough. They're all side by side too."

Francis flicked one of the cards back at him. "Don't worry about it man, we only need three."

I watched Nero's face falter a bit, and then he nodded. I turned around to find that Bill seemed to be in a very deep discussion with Natalie about Bob knows what. Poor girl, she looked like she wanted to scream or pull her hair out, but she just kept quiet and suffered silently.

I took a card from Francis' hand and set off to find the room that held a wonderful shower that was just calling my name.

I had to go past a few vending machines that pretty much look like they had been rummaged through already to get to the room. I slipped in the key and the little light on the lock went green. I opened the door to find that the inside wasn't any better than the lobby.

"This place is a dump," Francis said behind me.

I glanced at him as I threw our bags on a nearby table. "It's better than sleeping on the ground."

I slipped into the bathroom and locked the door so I could be alone without Francis trying to grope me.

Afterwards, I felt heaps better. I walked out of the tiny room to find Francis lying on the bed, hands behind his head, feet still on the ground, and sleeping.

I grinned and whispered to myself, "He sleeps."

I quietly patted across the floor to the bed and sat on his legs, facing him. I leaned over and put my hands on either side of his head and kissed his lips.

He didn't respond at first, but soon enough, he grabbed me and had his arms around my waist, trying to pull me closer to him.

"Zoey," he breathed once we came up for air.

"Hm?"

"I love you."

I looked at him and smiled. "Ditto."

And we kept on like that for the rest of the night.

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><p><strong>There ya go Francis-fans. Hope ya liked it! Keep the awesome reviews coming!<strong> **PS! I will write a one-shot for whoever recognizes the movie line I jacked! PM me with the answers and I will tell you if you're right or not. First person who gets it will get the one shot! I will email you if you're correct and I'll tell you the details then! Love you guys!  
>XOXO-Erika :))<br>**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello peoples! I am so sorry this is so late. Besides the fact that I'm failing at least three classes and I keep getting caught up reading other fanfics, I haven't really had a lot of time to update. That and I like to get a bit ahead in my story before I post anything. :)) I sincerely hope that you like this, because I went on a writing rampage last night in order to get this posted this morning. **  
><strong>Happy Reading! XOXO-Erika<strong>

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><p>The next morning I walked outside, fully dressed in jeans, sneakers, and my favorite faded red hoodie.<p>

I made my way to the front office where everybody else was.

"Hey everyone," I said, grabbing a pop tart off of the table.

"Sleep well?" Jack asked, smirking.

I blushed. "Yeah, thanks."

"Well I'm glad you did," Bill said gruffly. "I had my wall nearly knocked down last night."

I swear by this time, I was beet red. "Shut it Old Man."

"My god, he's even got you talking like him now!" Bill replied laughing now.

"All right, enough," Francis said coming into the room, half dressed. He only had his jeans and boots on, and even they were unlaced.

He came up behind me and enveloped me in his arms.

"Come on Francis, we were just kiddin'," Jack said, grinning now.

I glared at him mockingly and he just winked at me. I felt Francis' arms hold me tighter, obviously noticing.

"So what are we going to do today?" I asked Louis, who was currently looking at some magazine.

"I don't know," he said, not really paying attention.

"I have some ideas," Francis whispered in my ear.

I blushed and elbowed him in the ribs. I was sore enough from last night, and the hurt ribs didn't exactly help any either.

"Well we were just passing through to be honest," Bill stated. "But if you really want to, you're welcome to join us."

"Whoa, whoa whoa. Wait a damn minute. Is it really necessary to have a whole group of people?" Francis demanded, flirty mood instantly gone and out the window.

"Babe, it's actually a good idea," I said, turning to face him, his arms still wrapped around my torso.

"Zoey we don't know these people."

"No, but we didn't know Bill or Louis either, and look how that turned out. I really don't think there is good or bad people in the world anymore, just people trying to survive. And besides, the more people we have the less likely someone's going to get hurt," I told him.

He had his eyes fixated on mine for a few silent seconds and then looked up over at Adam and Jack. "If you want to, you guys can come. But I'm warning you right now, you put any of us in any kind of danger, your ass is grass and your head is mine."

Everyone present agreed. At that moment, Natalie and Nero walked inside and Adam graciously filled them in.

"Okay, I ain't got a problem with any of this, but I have a question," Natalie asked in her little back-country accent. I knew that I would end up liking Natalie right away.

Everyone looked at her with questioning and expectant eyes. "How in the world is everyone going to fit in the truck?"

The room bust out with laughter. After I regained my breath, I answered her. "I figured we could have three people in the front and back seats, so we'd always have two in the back, covering our asses."

The room was silent for a minute. "That's actually a good plan Zoe," Bill said, for once smiling. It almost sent me into shock it was such a surprise he wasn't frowning or glowering.

"Alright then, we leave tomorrow. It gives Adam and his crew time to finish up business here," Francis said, quietly, obviously now in thinking mode.

Everyone went off to go pack and gather supplies for the traveling the next day. I dragged Francis back into our room and sat him on the bed.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"I'm not sure if this is a good idea."

"That's what you said last time."

"Even more so. I don't like the way Jack looks at you," he retorted.

I unsuccessfully tried to hold back a snort. "Jack? There is nothing going on with Jack. Sure he's nice, but that doesn't mean I automatically fell in love with him Francis," I explained.

"Yeah but,"

"There are no buts," I said, wrapping my arms around his neck. "I'm with you. And it's staying that way."

Francis smiled and pecked my lips. "Good."

I mockingly glared at him and stuck my tongue out at him.

Francis lifted his eyebrows. "You better stick that thing back in before I find a better place for it."

I giggled. "Yeah right."

I then screeched as Francis flipped me over onto my back and proceeded to show me the better place, along with several others.

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><p><strong>I would LOVE it if some of you would review my story. All it takes is a little click of this button! :D<strong>

** l**  
><strong> l<strong>  
><strong> v<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**HEYY! I updated twice in one day! :D *does happy dance* I do realize they're kinda short, but I WILL make up for it in the next chapter. BTW! Nobody guessed what the quote was in chapter 12...o.O Do none of you ever watch movies? xD Happy reading!  
>XOXO-Erika<strong>

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><p>The next day, once everyone squeezed into the truck we set off. Somehow, Francis had taken over driving, Jack was sitting up front with him, and I was squished in the middle of them. Needless to say, there wasn't exactly much breathing room. The back seat wasn't any better. Poor Natalie was also squished, but with Adam and Bill being the squishers. Louis and Nero took the first shifts in the back of the truck. Mainly because we didn't want to listen to them bicker about which hair band from the 80s was the best.<p>

There was light conversation at first, considering the slight tension and awkwardness between Francis and Jack on either side of me. Behind me, I heard Bill and Adam going over plans to go to a hospital in Dallas that had been reportedly been set up as one of the 5 main base camps for the U.S. military. We taught our new friends the meaning of zombie-hockey and they got a good kick out of that one.

"So where are we stopping for the night?" Natalie asked as she watched Adam slowly nodding off after we had gone about thirteen hours of straight driving.

"There's a gas station ahead that we could hunker down in for the night if we really need to," Francis replied, gradually slowing the vehicle down.

We were just outside of Shreveport, Louisiana and we were all beyond exhausted, just from traveling alone. I wasn't feeling the greatest, so I figured we could stop and I would sleep it off.

We pulled into the closed off parking lot, barreling over the little orange cones that stood in our way. Francis threw the gearshift in Park and killed the engine. Everyone piled out as Nero and Louis took out a few stray zombies who were aimlessly walking or sitting pitifully on the ground. There weren't very many, so it was really easy for them.

Inside the building, surprisingly, the place hadn't been ransacked. Plenty of food and things were still stocked on the shelves and there was even electricity.

"I found a solar-generator in the back," Bill called.

"FRITOS!" Nero screeched, kneeling down in front of the isle full of different bags of chips, his arms rising above his head. "SWEET FRITOS!"

I grinned at Natalie. "Maybe he'll shut up now about food."

Having already torn open several bags, Nero glared my way. "Naht nice," he said, the tiny corn chips steadily falling out of his mouth.

"Never said I was," I said, happily opening a hissing can of Pepsi. I grabbed a bag of gummy worms from a nearby shelf and went to go sit by Francis, who was continuously shoving powdered doughnuts into his mouth.

I eyed him. "Having fun?" I questioned, downing a gulp of my delicious soda, followed by a gummy worm.

He blanched at my combination. "That's gross Zoe."

I shrugged. I just felt like eating it, so who was stopping me?

"We'll crash here tonight," Adam announced when everyone had gathered into a semi-circle. "We'll stock up on snacks and needed supplies and leave at noon tomorrow."

"Works for me," I mumbled, finishing off my soda.

There were some old mattresses on a far side of the store by the refrigerators. I went outside and got a couple of the blankets from the truck and brought them to the mattresses. I spread them out on the makeshift bed because God only knows what's been on them. I flopped down and used my arms as a pillow.

I felt Francis slip in behind me in a spooning fashion and kiss my forehead before I went to sleep. I felt myself smiling as I drifted off to sleep.

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><p><strong>Review people! The more you review, the more I write, therefore, the faster i will post! :DD<strong>


	15. Chapter 15

**I am sooo sorry that it's been so long since I've updated! I've had a case of writer's block, so I started another story, and I'm currently failing 5 of 8 classes so I've been trying to get my grades up. Thanks for waiting so patiently! OH BTW! I have a picture/banner type thingie that the WONDERFUL Jalos made for me. I was so tickled when i saw it! If you wanna see it there's a link for it on my profile. In the mean time, Happy Reading! XOXO-Erika**

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><p>I woke up sometime at dawn with this horrible taste in my mouth. I sat up, mainly because my stomach was churning. I stood up and ran out the front doors of the store and over to the side where nobody would hear me upchucking my previous meals.<p>

"Zoey?" I heard Jack yell and come after me as I rushed around the corner. I was heaving out my guts out and I raised my hand for him to stop.

"Are you okay?" he asked me softly when I was finished.

"You don't need to see this," I croaked.

"I've seen a sick person before Zoe," he said, and softly rubbed my back.

"Is she okay?" I heard Adam ask quietly while I continued to heave.

"I don't know man," Jack replied.

"Francis," I sighed, once I was finally finished.

I looked over at the two men and watched as Jack nodded and went to retrieve my boyfriend.

"When are you going to tell him?" Adam asked.

I was beyond confused. "What are you talking about?"

"It's a bit obvious sweetie," Adam replied quietly. "You ate the oddest combinations of food I have ever seen in my life last night, and tons of it. You didn't feel so good last night, and now you're puking this morning."

I stared at him, my mind racing. "So it was some bad food," I mumbled in denial.

There was no possible way that I could ever even remotely think about bringing a kid into this fucked up world. I would never do it. Never let myself bring a child into a world where they would constantly have to watch their backs and never have any peace.

"Sweetie, you're pregnant. Face it."

"Shut it Adam," I said as I watched Francis storm out of the front door, looking for me with wild eyes.

He ran up to me and hugged me tightly. "You alright babe?"

"Yeah, just ate some bad food last night," I said, looking over at a sullen Adam over his shoulder.

"Can I talk to Adam alone though? I need to ask him some questions," I said, looking at Francis.

He looked skeptical at first, and then nodded. He kissed me lovingly and walked back into the building, Jack in tow.

"You can't tell anyone Adam, please," I begged. "We don't even know for sure right now."

He sighed, suddenly finding tons of interest in the pavement below our feet. "There are tests inside, take several of them, and we'll see okay? This effects the whole team, you know that right?"

I almost breathed a sigh of relief. "I know. But I just want to make sure before I announce it and freak everyone out."

Adam nodded. "Understood."

We wandered back into the store and Adam distracted Francis long enough for me to grab several pregnancy tests off of the sanitary isle and rush off to the bathroom, locking the door behind me.

I did what I had to and laid the tests on the counter, impatiently waiting the long four minutes as the boxes indicated.

I sat there and thought about what could happen if those tests came up positive. I always wanted to be a mother, but that was before the world went to hell and threw the zombie-load at us. This wasn't supposed to happen, let alone to me. I didn't want to bring a child into the world until this was all over with.

But what if it never happened? What if I went through my whole life, having to worry about these stupid zombies wanting to constantly kill me and rip open my flesh? Ew. A bit gory. Just the thought churned my stomach once again.

I looked at my watched and checked the time for what must have been the seventh time in two minutes. I looked down at the tests and one was already clear as day. It had a little pink plus sign on it and I felt myself tear up.

I had no clue what to do. I had to eventually tell Francis, and knowing him and his temper, he was going to flip. And not in a good way. He had told me once that he actually did want kids, but like me, not while this entire zombie apocalypse shit was going on. He said that he wanted to wait until everything had blown over, find him a house, open a motorcycle garage, and live out the rest of his life. And now I was crushing that dream and going against it. His kid would be born into a world known only by terror and death…and it would all be my fault.

I hadn't realized that I was crying until I heard a soft knock at the door.

"Zoey? Are you alright?" I heard Natalie ask.

I slowly opened the door and let her inside, re-locking the door behind her.

I watched her as she recognized what was on the counter and she turned, her eyes like saucers, towards me.

"What's going on?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"Isn't it a bit obvious?" I asked, mirroring Adam's words.

"So are you?"

"I'm waiting on the tests," I said, scared to look over her shoulder at the little sticks that were holding my future.

There was banging on the door. "Come on you guys! We're fixing to leave!" we heard Nero yell.

The solemn look on Natalie's face disappeared. "Watch this," she whispered.

"SO," she announced rather loudly. "My PERIOD was almost late the other day, but then it came and I was SO relieved. It was HEAV-" she was interrupted.

"EEEEEEWWWWWWWW" Nero screamed at the top of his lungs and we heard him running away from the door as fast as he could manage.

I laughed until I cried, but instantly sobered when there was a tiny beep from the tests.

"Nattie, please look," I said. "I can't do it."

She nodded and turned around. A few seconds later, she turned to me with a sad smile. "Congrats Momma."

I gasped and shoved her out of the way to look at them. Sure enough, all four of those little evil pink plus signs had shown up. I sucked in a breath and sat myself on the counter.

"Breath Zoey," Nattie told me. I did and it seemed a little better.

"Let's go," I said at last. "We don't have time to waste."

"What about Francis?"

I sighed. "I'll tell him later, right now we gotta get a move on."

We walked out of the tiny bathroom and saw the guys all impatiently waiting on us.

"What took you guys so long?" Louis asked.

"NO!" Nero yelled, his eyes bugged. He covered his ears with his hands. "It's bad enough I'm scarred for life, I am NOT going through that again."

Nattie laughed and I rolled my eyes. "Let's go."

On the way to the truck, Francis walked up behind me and put his arm around my waist. "Everything okay?"

"Why in the hell does everybody keep freakin' asking me that?" I yelled. "I am PERFECTLY freakin' PEACHY!"

At this point, everyone had stopped to look at me. I finally realized what I did and sheepishly grinned. "We'll talk about it later," I whispered to Francis.

I caught up with Nattie, who I could tell was trying so hard not to laugh. I playfully slugged her in her arm. "What the hell are you laughing at?"

She giggled. "The look on his face mainly."

I looked back at Francis and saw that he was so frazzled and confused, he looked kind of like a lost puppy. I turned back to Nattie and smiled. "Damn hormones are getting to me already I guess."

Adam walked up on the other side of me. "So?"

I nodded, knowing what he was asking.

He sighed. "Well, we're here for you."

"Thanks," I said. Nero was already inside the truck in the back seat, and Natalie had already gotten the other back window seat.

"Scoot over Buttmunch," I said, shoving his shoulder.

"No, I always get window seat," he told me, sticking his tongue out.

I raised my eyebrows. "Unless you want to be castrated, I suggest you move your ass," I icily replied. I watched, as his eyes grew wide.

I heard Francis laughing behind me. "That's my girl."

I turned around and faced Francis, momentarily forgetting that I was pregnant, and kissed him sweetly. I felt him smile into the kiss and I did the same.

He pulled away. "I'm going to ride in the back. So Jacky-boy here is coming with me."

I rolled my eyes. "Really Francis? Dang. You ruined my plan. The moment you turned your back I planned on seducing him, right in front of everyone."

"That's why I'm taking him with me," he growled back.

I laughed, "Whatever, Cowboy."

He chastely kissed me and jumped in the back of the truck. I could swear I heard him mutter, "Cowboy my ass."

I smiled to myself and climbed into the big truck, taking my rightful spot by the window and shut the door. With Bill refusing to let anyone else drive; Adam and Louis were forced to squeeze up front.

Once we all got in our respective seats, we were finally off.

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><p><strong>Okay, I know a few of you have been asking where Dom has gone. I am currently thinking of ways to bring him back. So don't be afraid to speak your mind in the reviews, good or bad, just PLEASE for the love of god no flamage. It may make me cry. lol<strong>


	16. Chapter 16

**OMG U guys I am sooooo sorry I haven't updated quicker. I've been sick here the past couple of days and I got so busy with school and some of my other stories that I almost forgot about this one! BUT I DIDN"T! So, to make up for time lost, I'm updating twice in one day :D WOOT WOOT!  
>Please forgive me, and Happy Reading!<br>XOXO-Erika  
><strong>

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><p>Four hours, two boxes of Nutty Bars, three packages of gummy worms, six cans of soda, and two bathroom breaks later, we finally made it to a roadblock that we couldn't overcome by pushing alone.<p>

"Ugh. This sucks," Nero complained as we all got out of the truck.

"Thanks Captain Obvious," Bill snapped, grabbing several guns and boxes of ammo from the bed of the truck.

I sighed as everyone else started coming up with some stupid plan. I grabbed my pistol and strapped it to my hip. I put most of the snacks and stuff into one of the many backpacks and put it on my back.

"Are you sure you should be carrying that?" Jack asked me in a low voice, scaring the hell out of me.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" I breathed.

"Do you want me to carry that?" he tried from a different angle.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why can't I carry it?"

He shrugged. "I thought it might be too heavy and might strain your back. I hear its not good for your health you know."

I swallowed down a gasp and stared at him. "What do you know?"

He smirked slightly. "Everything."

"Who?"

"Nattie."

I sighed. I knew the girl only meant well, but she didn't have to go around telling everyone…

I looked at him with the deadliest glare I could. "You tell Francis and I will rip your dick off and shove it up your ass. Is that clear?"

He looked like he was going to laugh, but he just nodded. "As mud."

I glared at him and stomped away in the direction of Francis, so maybe he would stay clear of him.

I grabbed Francis' hand and leaned against his shoulder. He slid his arm around my waist and kissed my forehead. He pulled away and strapped on his guns and filled his pockets full of extra bullets.

I already had all my guns ready to fire. We all got in a semi circle and started towards the hospital.

We made small talk, but didn't do much talking because the further we got into the city, the more zombies there were. I heard a loud screeching noise that sounded like a Hunter and I couldn't help but think of Dominic. He was out there all alone, and more than likely pissed off at the world. He had even more a reason to be now that I was pregnant. It almost made me wonder what he would do if we ever went back to see him.

I hadn't noticed because I was thinking off in LaLa Land, but between Jack, Adam, and Natalie, they had formed a tight circle around me.

Nero tripped and accidently shot a nearby car, setting off its alarm. Holy shit.

"Damn it Nero!" Bill yelled, making sure that his gun was ready.

"I'm sorry man, I didn't mean to," he stuttered.

"Just get to shooting!"

And shooting we did. All in all, the horde didn't really stand a chance against us. We shot every single one of them until they were all dead, or at least until Francis could yank the battery out of the damn car.

There was an eerie silence after the last shot was fired, like any of us expected a second rank of zombies to come in and get their revenge for their fellow fallen.

"Well that was fun," Nero said.

Adam hit him upside his head. "Someone could've gotten hurt you jackass."

"Let's find a place to settle down for the night," Natalie suggested. I sent her a grateful glance, mainly because I wasn't feeling too hot at the moment.

We searched around until we found a machine shop. There were a few infected in there, but were shot down. Jack and Adam took the liberty of dragging the dead carcasses out of there before anyone entered.

It had a really musty smell to it, almost like old people had been living there for a while. That mixed in with motor oil and spilled beer made my stomach churn.

"You okay babe?" came a whisper in my ear. I looked over at Francis, who now had his arm snaked around my waist.

I nodded. "My stomach's just a little upset."

"We should probably do a few perimeter runs," Jack suggested, reloading his rifle. "We don't know what's out there, so the safer the better."

Natalie and I made ourselves useful by rummaging through the small offices in the back, coming up with any food we could find. We still had plenty in the truck, but any little bit would help. There ended up being this huge box full of what looked like deer-jerky in one of the closets. All I could think of was poor little Bambi being slaughtered to make this meat, and I covered my mouth to keep from upchucking.

I picked up the box and held my breath while I took it out to the garage. I dropped it and went to sit in one of the chairs on the side.

Adam walked over by me, seemingly busy, but managed to whisper, "You have to tell him sometime. The sooner the better so we can protect you more."

I flipped him off and pouted like a little kid. I was planning on telling Francis tonight, but I didn't know how.

All the sudden, a bag of Doritos was thrown into my lap. I looked up at Jack who was grinning. "Eat up," he said, and walked back towards the little circle that everyone had created. I frowned and opened up the bag anyways, stuffing a few chips into my mouth.

I watched Nero as he sauntered over and stole a handful of chips from my bag. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Not a wise choice my friend," Jack called over. Apparently, he found it his job to watch over me now. It was kinda sweet, but mostly annoying as hell.

"Why not?" Nero asked. I shoved him over since he had been sitting on the ground at this point.

"Because it's not nice," Francis said, coming over and picking me up to sit in his lap. I leaned into his chest, willing to take the comfort at the moment.

"I need to talk to you later," I whispered into his ear. He looked kind of weird at me for a second, and then nodded. I immediately started feeling even more nervous about it than I was before about telling him that I was pregnant.


	17. Chapter 17

**As promised, here is the second chapter of the day :DDD **

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><p>Somehow, Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Nero and Louis) managed to start a controllable fire in one of the old empty oil barrels and started cooking the meat. It grew dark outside and we ate. The meat and stuff wasn't that bad, after I put the fact that I was eating Bambi's father out of my mind.<p>

There was tons of conversation going on around us as we all sat around the metal barrel, which was giving off a lot of heat surprisingly.

I stood up and grabbed Francis' hand, tugging him along as I headed towards the front entrance doors. I grabbed two rifles that were standing by the front doors and handed one to Francis before we left the building. I felt three pairs of eyes boring into my back as I shut the door and stepped outside with Francis.

I looked over at him and he was sweeping the perimeter to make sure there were no "Walkers", as Nero had started calling the zombies, around. Once he thought that it was safe, he lowered his gun and wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

"Alright babe, what'd you drag me out here that was soooo important?" he asked. He was in a decently good mood, I could tell from the humor in his voice.

I led us to a corner of the building where we could keep an eye out on either side of us. I leaned up against the building and propped my foot up on it. I was almost sweating I was so nervous. I had been putting it off for so long, and now it was coming to bite me in the ass.

"Earth to Zoe," Francis said, snapping his fingers in my face. I came out of my trance and back into the world.

"Um," I said. I couldn't make the words form.

Francis put his hand against the wall on one side of my head, leaning closely. "Spit it out babe."

I looked him straight in his eyes. "I'm p-pregnant," I blurted.

He was completely silent for a second, just staring at me.

"Say something," I begged, panicky.

"Something," he said, the blank look on his face growing more and more distant by the second. I put my arms around his neck, pulling him closer so he could hold me. At this point he had still said absolutely nothing, and something told me that I should probably hold onto him like this while I could. I cemented myself against him, and he tentively wrapped his free arm around my waist, keeping me close to him.

"A baby," he whispered against me. I felt his breath on my neck, it was uneven, and I should've seen what happened next coming.

He actually passed out. He fell to the ground and everything, taking me with him. I landed ontop of him since he fell backwards on his ass. I let out a shriek of surprise and we landed with a thud.

I was shocked at first, and couldn't help a giggle. I heard scrambling from inside the building and everyone rushed outside, armed and loaded, ready to face whatever had made me yell like that.

"EWWW!" Nero yelped, covering his eyes. "Nobody wants to see that Zoey!"

I suppose the position that I fell on him did look sort of awkward. I ended up practically straddling Francis' waist when I sat up.

I looked over at the gang. They all had mixed emotions, most of which being confused. Louis and Bill were the confused ones, Jack looked irritated, Nero looked disgusted, and both Adam and Nattie looked like they were on the verge of laughing their asses off.

"What the hell happened?" Jack asked, offering me a hand up. I took it graciously and stood up.

"I told him and, he sort of freaked out and passed out!"

"Told him what exactly?" Bill asked gruffly, eyeing me.

At this point, Adam and Nattie had burst out and were rolling on the ground laughing. I scowled over at them before I turned back to Bill.

"I'm sort of…"

"Oh my god, you're knocked up aren't you?" Bill interrupted.

I said nothing, but Louis looked sort of angry. "WHAT?" he exclaimed.

"That boy just couldn't wrap it up could he?" Bill muttered, more to himself than the others, but I still heard him.

"Hey, no need to go blaming him because of this. It's just as much my fault ya know!" I said defensively.

"This is JUST what we fucking need right now," Louis exploded, throwing down his gun and marching in another direction. I watched as Jack reared up and followed him, looking quite pissed off at the man.

It got really quiet then, with the exception of the moaning of Francis as he woke up. Swallowing my tears, I turned on my heel and walked over to Francis.

I squatted down beside him, smiling as best I could at that moment and put my hand on his cheek. "Hey Sleepyhead. How was your nap?"

"You're…pregnant?" he asked again, looking sort of scared for the first time since I had met him so many weeks ago. I nodded, sitting in his lap and putting my hands on his chest. His hands settled on my waist as he looked at me.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded again. I felt it was better to let him speak, now that he wasn't busy passing out. He looked down at the ground for a second, as if deep in thought.

"Do you want to keep it?" he asked me after a few minutes of comfortable silence. The rest of the group had gone inside so we could have those few moments together.

"Of course Francis," I said.

"Ok-ay," he drawled out. "Let's have a baby then."

I laughed at him. "It's not like we have much choice," I said, putting a hand on my stomach.

"One condition," I said. I had thought long and hard about this on the drive here, and I was standing by my decision.

"What's that babe?" he asked, his head on my shoulder, one hand on mine, one around my waist.

"I'm naming my kid."

"Why only you?"

I looked at him like he was crazy. "Unless you want to push this kid out of your vagina, then I get to name him or her."

He burst out laughing and put his hands up in surrender. "You got me. I know you've been thinking about names, since obviously some people already know about it."

"I was thinking for a boy, Phillip. Phillip Jack Benson," I said, adding Francis' last name in there for good measure.

"Phillip Jack…I like it! But can I call him PJ?" Francis insisted.

Mortified, I scoffed. "NO! I hate those kinds of things. He can go by his first, or middle name. No initial nicknames though."

"What about a girl?" he asked, playing with my hair. I leaned into his touch and rested my head on his chest.

"Maybe…Mischa…Mischa Rae," I said thoughtfully.

"Beautiful," he breathed into my neck, kissing it lightly. I laughed softly and kissed him deeply.

I thought it was going to be totally hard, telling Francis. But apparently not. But my thoughts were interrupted when I heard a loud thud on the ground. I looked up and saw Dominic standing there, looking sort of menacing, but not really towards me.

"Oh. My. God." I gasped.

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><p><strong>:O DUN DUN DUNNNNNN What will happen? The return of Dom has FINALLY come! WOOT! *does dance* Read and review peoplezz :D<strong>


	18. Chapter 18

**Okay you guys, I know it's been a while, and this is ridiculously short. I'm not giving any excuses to why this is late, only that it's here now! :D I have some good ideas floating around in my head for this story, so I'll probably update again pretty soon.  
>Happy Reading! XOXO- Erika<strong>

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><p>"What?" Francis asked, looking over his shoulder. He jumped up when he saw that it was Dom, grabbing his gun.<p>

"No!" I hissed, shoving the barrel of the gun towards the ground.

I walked straight up to Dom, giving him a hug.

"Zoey! Have you lost your damn mind!" Francis protested from behind me.

After a second, Dom pulled away and gently pointed a claw towards my stomach and did his little head-cocking thingie...oh how I missed it. I would've never guessed that I would've missed that, of all things since we had left. I soon realized that he saw and heard everything, and he just needed it confirmed.

"Yeah," I said softly. He stared at me for a second, like he was thinking about something. He made no sudden movements, but I could tell he was getting a little nervous.

"I'm keeping it," I said quietly to Dom. He nodded immediately. He pulled me closer to him, his claws mindful of my face. He kissed my left cheek, followed by my right, only lingering a little longer than normal. He pulled back and smiled as best as he could, which was only a little past a grimace, but I knew he meant well.

"How are we going to explain this one to the others, besides Louis and Bill of course?" Francis asked from behind me. I turned to him and grabbed hold of his hand.

"We're just gonna have to make them listen I guess."

"I like your way of thinking Babe," Francis said, cocking the shotgun.

I rolled my eyes and turned to Dominic. "They're not going to be too happy about you being here, so stay behind me okay?"

Apprehensively, he agreed, nodding his head.

"HEY YOU GUYS! GET OUT HERE!" Francis yelled out of nowhere.

I glared at him. "Smooth."

He shrugged and grinned. "You know me."

I rolled my eyes again and listened to the scrambling of feet hitting the ground and guns being cocked. I about panicked, but refrained and stood my ground.

They all burst through the doors, looking half asleep, half terrified.

"Dom's here." I blurted. Louis and Bill automatically put down their guns.

"Who the fuck is Dom?" Nero asked, his gun pointing wildly and searching quick.

"Put it down Clint Eastwood. Listen to me, all of you," Bill said, gaining the attention of the rest of the group. "Dom, is a very, special guy. He's actually an infected, but he has quite a bit of self control, and he's never hurt any of us."

There were nothing but wide eyes and a few gasps.

"He's a fucking infected and you guys hang out with him?" Jack snarled.

"HEY!" I yelled. "Dom has never hurt any one of us. EVER. Nor will he. He wouldn't do that to me."

"So you have a pet? How wonderful," Jack growled.

I was loosing my cool, and quick too. "Watch him," I murmured to Francis and threw down my pistol. I marched right up to him and got in his face.

"Listen to me Dipshit. Dom is a part of this team. He's saved my life, more than once, so if you have a fucking problem with that, you're more than welcome to go kick rocks," I said to him icily. "That goes for the rest of you. You don't have to worry about your safety, but nobody's holding a gun to your head to keep you here."

There was complete silence for a split second.

"Hell, if you trust 'em, then I do," Natalie said, shrugging.

"He doesn't look like he's going to hurt anyone," Nero said, peeking around Francis' shoulder. "I'm good with it."

"I'm not sure I like it, but I guess I'm gonna have to deal," Adam said, lowering his weapon.

Jack said nothing, didn't move, only stared at Dom.

Everyone soon made their way inside the building, including Dom. He made his way to the closest corner that was near the fire. I watched him as he crouched down into a normal Hunter position and watched us all.

I got frustrated that he was excluding himself out of the group, so I got up from my spot and walked over to him. He stopped looking at the group and looked at me with curiosity, not that I could really see his face, but I knew.

I grabbed his arm, tugging him towards the fire. He shook his head no.

"Come on, nobody's gonna shoot you," I whispered jokingly.

"N-not funny," he whispered hoarsely back. I laughed and pulled him towards the circle.

I pulled him over beside Francis to where my spot was, and I just sat in Francis' lap. Dom was apprehensively looking around, but I had a feeling he wasn't really worried about most of them.

I looked around the circle and noticed everyone had noticed his presence, but they didn't say anything since they were talking to other people. The only people that seemed somewhat at ease were myself, Francis, Bill and Louis. Out of the others, Nero seemed the most relaxed. I looked over at Jack and he was staring at Dom with hateful eyes. Something told me that he was going to be a bit of trouble.

Out of nowhere, there was a huge amount of gunfire that was coming from outside. I jumped up to see what was happening, but Francis gave me a warning look.

"Watch her. Don't let her get up," he ordered Dom. To my dismay, Dom agreed and held me back by my shoulders. I was glaring at him when most of the guys went outside to see what was going on.

"Are you people staying here?" I heard a gruff voice I didn't recognize. The voice was loud, and sounded tired but on edge.

"For now, we're headed for Dallas," Bill answered back. I listened intently as the unknown guy grew closer and closer.

"Mind if I join with ya?" the voice asked.

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><p><strong>lol, my friend is going to love this. As for the newcomer, you'll see who it is in good time ;) One of you already knows who it is...R&amp;R! Thanks so much for sticking with me :)<strong>


	19. Authors Note

**People, words can't explain how sorry I am about not updating for...however long I haven't updated. I decided I need your help. I have several ideas in my head about where to go with my story, and I can't make up my mind. SOOOOO I'm leaving it up to you guys. There's a poll on my profile about...well you'll just see. Go vote and I'll see in a few weeks what everyone wants and I'll make the last couple of chapters! **

**I can't express how much it means to me that everybody reading this is still sticking by me. Thanks so much for waiting, patiently or impatient, it doesn't matter ;)**

**XOXO-Erika**


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